He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv32–39 32. He who has not spared his own son,…
32. He who has not spared his own son, etc. As it greatly concerns us to be so thoroughly persuaded of the paternal love of God, as to be able to retain our rejoicing on its account, Paul brings forward the price of our redemption in order to prove that God favors us: and doubtless it is a remarkable and clear evidence of inappreciable love, that the Father refused not to bestow his Son for our salvation. And so Paul draws an argument from the greater to the less, that as he had nothing dearer, or more precious, or more excellent than his Son, he will neglect nothing of what he foresees will be profitable to us.
This passage ought to remind us of what Christ brings to us, and to awaken us to contemplate his riches; for as he is a pledge of God’s infinite love towards us, so he has not been sent to us void of blessings or empty, but filled with all celestial treasures, so that they who possess him may not want anything necessary for their perfect felicity. To deliver up means here to expose to death.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv32, 33, 35, 37 Give us freely.
Give us freely.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv32–39 32 He that spared not his own Son, but…
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Ver. 32. He that spared not] Qui misit unigenitum, immisit spiritum, promisit vultum, quid tandem tibi negaturus est? saith Bernard. Nihil unquam ei negasse credendum est, quem ad vituli hortatur esum, saith Jerome.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv32–39 He that spared not his own Son: this phrase…
He that spared not his own Son: this phrase either shows the bounty of God, that he did not withhold Christ; or the severity of God, that he did not favour, but afflict and punish him, Isa 53:4,5,11.
But delivered him up: see Act 2:23. This doth not excuse Judas, no, nor Pilate and the Jews; though they executed God’s purpose, yet they acted their own malice and wickedness.
Read full note →
For us all; this plainly refers to such persons as he had before mentioned, such as God foreknew, predestinated, called, &c., which is not all men in general, but a set number of persons in particular: it is an expression both of latitude and restriction; of latitude, in the word all; of restriction, in the word us.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? q.d. Without question he will; it may be confidently inferred and concluded: He that hath given the greater, will not stick to give the less. Christ is more than all the world, or than all other gifts and blessings whatsoever.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv32–38 Here we have, 1. A proposition laid down, containing…
Here we have, 1. A proposition laid down, containing matter of the highest consolation to us; namely, that God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.
He spared not; that is, he did not spare to give him, or part with him; with Abraham, he did not withhold his Son, his only Son from us.
Read full note →
Again; he did not spare him; that is, he did not spare to punish him; he did not abate him one farthing, nor spare him one stroke, which divine justice did or could demand.
It is farther added, that God delivered him up for us all. Judas delivered up Christ, Pilate delivered him up, and the Jews also; Judas for money, Pilate for fear, the Jews for envy; but none of these delivered him up for us: But God the Father delivered up his Son, and God the Son delivered up himself, as a prisoner by the sentence of the law is delivered up for execution; and his being delivered up for us, denotes the vicegerency of his sufferings, not only for our good, as the final cause, but for our sins, as the meritorious cause, in our room, place, and stead.
Learn hence, That the utmost rigour and severity of divine justice was inflicted and executed upon our Lord Jesus Chrsit in the day of his passion, and that by the pleasure and appointment of God the Father: He spared not, but delivered up his own Son.
Observe, 2. The comfortable inference and conclusion which the apostle draws from the foregoing proposition; How shall he not with him freely give us all things? Intimating, that the greatest mercies and best of blessings shall not be denied to us, or withheld from us.
If Christ be ours, 1Co 3:21. all things are yours (that is, all spiritual, temporal, and eternal mercies) and ye are Christ’s.
For, 1. No other mercy can be so dear to God as his own Son: He was his soul’s delight. If, therefore, he spared not the most excellent mercy, he will not withhold any inferior mercy.
2. There is no other mercy we want, but we are entitled to it by the gift of Christ, and it is conveyed to us with Christ; all things (as to right) are ours, if we be his.
3. If God gave us his Son, when we were his enemies, certainly he will deny us nothing that is good for us, now we are reconciled and made friends.
It is our apostle’s argument, If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Rom 5:9.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv32–39 He that spared not his own Son,.... It is…
He that spared not his own Son,.... It is said that God spared not the angels that sinned, nor the old world, which was full of violence, nor Sodom and Gomorrah, whose wickedness was great, nor the Egyptians and their firstborn, refusing to let Israel go, nor the Israelites themselves, when they transgressed his laws, nor wicked men hardened in sin; all which is not to be wondered at; but that he should not spare "his own Son", his proper Son, of the same nature with him, and equal to him, the Son of his love, and who never sinned against him, is very amazing: he spares many of the sons of men in a providential way, and in a way of grace, but he did not spare his own Son, or abate him anything in any respect, what was agreed upon between them, with regard to the salvation of his people; as appears by his assuming human nature, with all its weaknesses and infirmities; by his having laid on him all the iniquities of his people, and all the punishment due unto them he inflicted on him, without the least abatement; and by his sufferings not being deferred at all, beyond the appointed time; when full satisfaction for all their sins were demanded, the whole payment of their debts to the uttermost farthing insisted on, and all done according to the utmost strictness of divine justice: and which was not out of any disaffection to him; nor because he himself deserved such treatment; but because of the counsel, purpose, and promise of God, that his law and justice might be fully satisfied, and his people completely saved: moreover, the sense of the phrase may be learnt from the use of it in the Septuagint version of Gen 22:12, "thou hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son from me", which that renders , "thou hast not spared thy beloved Son for me": so God did not spare his Son, because he did not withhold him:
but delivered him up for us all. That is, God the Father delivered him, according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, into the hands of wicked men; into the hands of justice, and to death itself; not for all men, for to all men he does not give Christ, and all things freely with him, nor are all delivered from condemnation and death by him; wherefore if he was delivered up for all men, he must be delivered up in vain for some; but for "us all", or "all us", whom he foreknew, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified; and not merely as a martyr, or by way of example only, and for their good, but as their surety and substitute, in their room and stead: wherefore
Read full note →
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Christ is God's free gift to his elect; he is given to be a covenant to them, an head over them, a Saviour of them, and as the bread of life for them to live upon: he is freely given; God could never have been compelled to have given him; Christ could never have been merited by them; nothing that they could give or do could have laid him under obligation to have bestowed him on them; yea, such were the persons, and such their characters, for whom he delivered him up, that he might have justly stirred up all his wrath against them; and yet such was his grace, that he has given his own Son unto them; and not him alone, but "all things" with him: all temporal good things, needful and convenient; all spiritual blessings, a justifying righteousness, pardon of sin, sanctifying grace, adoption, and eternal life: and all "freely", in a sovereign way, according to his own good will and pleasure, without any obligation or compulsion; not grudgingly nor niggardly, but cheerfully and bountifully, absolutely, and without any conditions; for he is not moved thereunto by anything in them, or performed by them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv32–38 He that - This period contains four sentences: He…
He that - This period contains four sentences: He spared not his own Son; therefore he will freely give us all things. He delivered him up for us all; therefore, none can lay anything to our charge. Freely - For all that follows justification is a free gift also. All things - Needful or profitable for us.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv32–39 Verse 32. He that spared not his own Son]…
Verse 32. He that spared not his own Son] And can we, his sincere followers, doubt of the safety of our state, or the certainty of his protection? No: for if he loved us, Gentiles and Jews, so intensely as to deliver up to death his own Son for us all, can he withhold from us any minor blessing? Nay, will he not, on the contrary, freely give us all things? For if he told Abraham, who is the father of the faithful, and representative of us all, and with whom the covenant was made, that, because he had not withheld from him his only son Isaac, but delivered him up to that death which he thought his God had required, in blessing, he would bless him; and in multiplying, he would multiply him; that his seed should possess the gate of his enemies; and that in it all the nations of the earth should be blessed, Ge 22:16-19; will HE not give US all that was spiritually intended by these promises, whose only begotten Son was not sacrificed in a figure, but really, in order to purchase every blessing that the soul of man can need and that the hand of God can dispense.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 38 Rom 8:33-34. Who shall lay any thing to the…
Rom 8:33-34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge — Any matter of guilt, which should bring them into condemnation, or shall bring an accusation against God’s elect — That is, against true believers, who have so received Christ (Joh 1:12) as to have obtained the privilege of becoming God’s children, and who only have the title of God’s elect in the New Testament, God having chosen such, and only such, for his people, instead of the disobedient Jews, whom he rejected for their unbelief. See note on Rom 8:28-30. To explain this a little further, in the words of a writer, quoted here by Mr. Wesley: — “Long before the coming of Christ, the heathen world revolted from the true God, and were therefore reprobated, or rejected. But the nation of the Jews were chosen to be the people of God, and were therefore styled, the children, or sons, of God, a holy people, a chosen seed, the elect, the called of God. And these titles were given to all the nation of Israel, including both good and bad. Now the gospel, having the most strict connection with the books of the Old Testament, where these phrases frequently occur; and our Lord and his apostles being native Jews, and beginning to preach in the land of Israel, the language in which they preached would, of course, abound with the phrases of the Jewish nation. And hence it is easy to see, why such of them as would not receive him were styled reprobated. For they no longer continued to be the people of God: whereas this, and those other honourable titles, were continued to all such Jews as embraced Christianity. And the same appellations which once belonged to the Jewish nation, were now given to the Gentile Christians also, together with which they were invested with all the privileges of the chosen people of God; and nothing could cut them off from these, but their own wilful apostacy. It does not appear that even good men were ever termed God’s elect, till above two thousand years from the creation. God’s electing, or choosing, the nation of Israel, and separating them from the other nations, who were sunk in idolatry and all wickedness, gave the first occasion to this sort of language. And as the separating the Christians from the Jews was a like event, no wonder it was expressed in like words and phrases: only with this difference, the term elect was of old applied to all the members of the visible church, whereas, in the New Testament, it is applied only to the members of the invisible,” to truly spiritual Christians, possessed of the faith working by love. It is God that justifieth — Acquits them from condemnation, and accounts them righteous; and his power and authority are supreme over all creatures: he can and will answer all objections against them, and pronounce them absolved now, and at the day of final judgment. To justify, here, being opposed to laying a charge, or bringing an accusation, against God’s people, must be understood in the forensic sense; for a judicial acquittal from that of which the justified persons were accused, and from all the consequences which would have followed if they had not been acquitted. Who is he that condemneth? — What is his authority or power; he can but be a creature; and surely no creature, man or angel, can frustrate the Creator’s sentence. On what ground can any one accuse or condemn them? Is it on that of their past guilt, or their present remaining depravity? It is Christ that died — Namely, to expiate the former, and to procure for them grace to mortify and destroy the latter. Yea rather, that is risen again — For their justification, now and at the day of judgment; who is even at the right hand of God — Exalted to the highest degree of honour and power, even to the government of the universe; and that for this very end, to protect them against their enemies, deliver them from the guilt and power of their sins, and confer upon them his regenerating, sanctifying Spirit. The apostle seems here to allude to Psa 110:1, where the empire of the Messiah, after his resurrection, is foretold. Christ, who died to save God’s people, and who, since his resurrection, governs the world for their benefit, will neither condemn them himself, when he sitteth in judgment upon them, nor suffer any other to condemn them. Who also maketh intercession for us — By presenting to his Father his obedience and sufferings, whereby, as our surety, he hath made satisfaction for our sins, and by manifesting his desire and will, in his prayers offered for us, that we should be made partakers of all the blessings procured by his sacrifice, and by presenting our prayers sanctified, and rendered acceptable through him. Dr. Doddridge, following Augustine, reads and interprets these clauses interrogatively, thus: Who shall lodge any accusation, &c. Is it God? What! he who himself justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Is it Christ, whom we know to be appointed as the final Judge? What! doth he condemn, who died to expiate our guilt, and rescue us from condemnation? Yea rather, who is risen again? Shall he undo the purposes of his death and resurrection? He who is now at the right hand of God, where he appears under a quite contrary character, and is also making intercession for us; and therefore, far from accusing us, appears ready to answer all accusations brought against us, and to frustrate all the designs of our enemies? But, as Macknight observes, the common translation, at least of the first clause, is better, as it avoids the impropriety of representing God as an accuser at the tribunal of his Son. Besides, it is fully as emphatical as the other. God having declared his purpose of justifying his believing and obedient people through faith, will any one, after that, presume to bring any accusation against them?
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv32–39 He that spared not - Who did not retain,…
He that spared not - Who did not retain, or keep from suffering and death.
His own Son - Who thus gave the highest proof of love that a father could give, and the highest demonstration of his willingness to do good to those for whom he gave him.
Read full note →
But delivered him up - Gave him into the hands of men, and to a cruel death; Note, Act 2:23.
For us all - For all Christians. The connection requires that this expression should be understood here with this limitation. The argument for the security of all Christians is here derived from the fact, that God had shown them equal love in giving his Son for them. It was not merely for the apostles; not only for the rich, and the great; but for the most humble and obscure of the flock of Christ. For them he endured as severe pangs, and expressed as much love, as for the rich and the great that shall be redeemed. The most humble and obscure believer may derive consolation from the fact that Christ died for him, and that God has expressed the highest love for him which we can conceive to be possible.
How shall he not - His giving his Son is a proof that he will give to us all things that we need. The argument is from the greater to the less. He that has given the greater gift will not withhold the less.
All things - All things that may be needful for our welfare. These things he will give freely; without money and without price. His first great gift, that of his Son, was a free gift; and all others that we may need will be given in a similar manner. It is not by money, nor by our merit, but it is by the mere mercy of God; so that from the beginning to the end of the work it is all of grace. We see here,
The privilege of being a Christian. He has the friendship of God; has been favored with the highest proofs of divine love; and has assurance that he shall receive all that he needs.
(2)He has evidence that God will continue to be his friend. He that has given his Son to die for his people will not withdraw the lesser mercies that may be necessary to secure their salvation. The argument of the apostle here, therefore, is one that strongly shows that God will not forsake his children, but will keep them to eternal life.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv32, 33, 35, 38, 39 He that spared not, &c. This is another argument…
He that spared not, &c. This is another argument for us to hope in the goodness of God, who hath so loved the world, that he hath delivered, and given his true and only Son for us all, to redeem all and every one, and has by his death obtained helps and graces by which we may all be saved. --- How hath he not also, with him, given us all things? That is, since he has given for us his only Son, how can we doubt, but that, with him, he will give us all gifts and graces? He hath given us, says St. John Chrysostom, his Son himself, and how can we doubt of other blessings? (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv32–39 He--rather, "He surely." (It is a pity to lose…
He--rather, "He surely." (It is a pity to lose the emphatic particle of the original).
that spared not--"withheld not," "kept not back." This expressive phrase, as well as the whole thought, is suggested by Gen 22:12, where Jehovah's touching commendation of Abraham's conduct regarding his son Isaac seems designed to furnish something like a glimpse into the spirit of His own act in surrendering His own Son. "Take now (said the Lord to Abraham) thy son, thine only, whom thou lovest, and . . . offer him for a burnt offering" (Gen 22:2); and only when Abraham had all but performed that loftiest act of self-sacrifice, the Lord interposed, saying, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou HAST NOT WITHHELD THY SON, THINE ONLY SON, from Me." In the light of this incident, then, and of this language, our apostle can mean to convey nothing less than this, that in "not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up," or surrendering Him, God exercised, in His Paternal character, a mysterious act of Self-sacrifice, which, though involving none of the pain and none of the loss which are inseparable from the very idea of self-sacrifice on our part, was not less real, but, on the contrary, as far transcended any such acts of ours as His nature is above the creature's. But this is inconceivable if Christ be not God's "own (or proper) Son," partaker of His very nature, as really as Isaac was of his father Abraham's. In that sense, certainly, the Jews charged our Lord with making Himself "equal with God" (see on Joh 5:18), which He in reply forthwith proceeded, not to disown, but to illustrate and confirm. Understand Christ's Sonship thus, and the language of Scripture regarding it is intelligible and harmonious; but take it to be an artificial relationship, ascribed to Him in virtue either of His miraculous birth, or His resurrection from the dead, or the grandeur of His works, or all of these together--and the passages which speak of it neither explain of themselves nor harmonize with each other.
Read full note →
delivered him up--not to death merely (as many take it), for that is too narrow an idea here, but "surrendered Him" in the most comprehensive sense; compare Joh 3:16, "God so loved the world that He GAVE His only-begotten Son."
for us all--that is, for all believers alike; as nearly every good interpreter admits must be the meaning here.
how shall he not--how can we conceive that He should not.
with him also--rather, "also with Him." (The word "also" is often so placed in our version as to obscure the sense; see on Heb 12:1).
freely give us all things?--all other gifts being not only immeasurably less than this Gift of gifts, but virtually included in it.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv32–39 32. That God is upon his side the apostle…
32. That God is upon his side the apostle now brings the strongest of all arguments.
Spared not his own Son—The own here is emphatic, like only begotten Son, (Joh_3:16.)
Read full note →
All things—As comprehensive as the all things of Rom_8:28.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv32–39 32. He that spared not] From all the humiliation…
32. He that spared not] From all the humiliation and anguish involved in His incarnation and passion. For comment, see Psa_22:1; Isa_53:6; Isa_53:10; Mat_26:38-39.
his own Son] The word “own” is of course emphatic, marking the infinite difference, as to the Divine Generation, between the son-ship of Christ and that of Christians. Note that the Lord, in Joh_20:17, says not “our Father and our God,” but “my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”—For comment on the doctrine of the Divine Sonship of Christ, as revealing the supreme love of both the Giver and the Given One, see e.g. Joh_1:18; Joh_3:16; Joh_3:35-36; Rom_5:3; Rom_5:10; Eph_1:6; Col_1:13-14; Heb_1:2-3.—“He spared not His Son: ’Tis this that silences the rising fear; ’Tis this that makes the hard thought disappear: He spared not His Son.” (Bonar.)
Read full note →
all things] Lit. the all things; all those things needful to the safety and bliss of the children of God.—See for comment, 1Co_3:21-23; and Rom_8:28.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv33–39 (33, 34) Who shall lay any thing . .…
(33, 34) Who shall lay any thing . . .?—The punctuation and arrangement of these clauses are somewhat difficult. It seems best on the whole to connect together the two clauses at the end of Rom_8:33, and beginning of Rom_8:34. The whole passage to the end of the chapter will then form a continuous proof of the certainty that all things shall be freely given to the Christian. Nothing can frustrate this: either on the side of God, for when He justifies none can condemn; or on the side of Christy whose death, and resurrection, and ascension, and intercession are pledges that nothing can separate us from His love.
What have we to fear? When God pronounces our acquittal there is none who can pronounce our condemnation. Literally, God is He who justifies, who then can condemn? And answering to this in the next verse we have, Christ is He that died, &c. This is the two-fold answer to the question, “Who shall come forward to accuse God’s elect?” It is a conclusive reply to this to state the relation in which the accused stand to God and to Christ.
Read full note →
God’s elect.—Christians as such with especial reference to the process which the Apostle has been describing in Rom_8:29-30.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 38 Vers. 33, 34. The triumphant challenge.
Vers. 33, 34. The triumphant challenge.
He has asked the general question, challenging an answer: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" He now proceeds to two special questions, the first of which has reference to the justification of believers by God. In view of that he asks, "Who shall lay anything to their charge? who shall condemn?" And again, amplifying the fact of their justification, he tells of the death, the resurrection, the ascension, the intercession, of Christ Jesus, as the pledge and declaration of their acquittal. We may consider the possible sources of charge against God"s people, and their triumphant vindication.
Read full note →
I THE CHARGE. To them that are in Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation, and yet whispers of condemnation may again and again be heard.
1. The transgressions of the past may come to mind with such force as to destroy our joy in God. Past irreparable, and though first consciousness of free forgiveness of God may almost blot it from our memory for the time, yet there are times when it seems to live again, and so vividly that we can hardly detach the thought of overwhelming guilt as still upon us.
2. The imperfections of the present. How far from the perfectness of the ideal! And how the very growth of earnestness and increase of endeavour seem to make the ideal more distant still! So conscience, the Law, the adversary, and accusing men (see Beet, in loc. ) may make us feel condemned.
II THE VINDICATION. But the condemnation is not real; it exists only in the diseased imagination. Let it be brought face to face with the great facts of the gospel, and it must vanish quite away. What are these facts?
1. The great central fact is that we are God"s chosen ones; and who shall dispute God"s choice? Not that he ever can act without reason; but, whether we see the reason or not, we are elect, the elect of God, as being his people, and who shall gainsay it?
2. This great election is declared by his justification of the believer, which has gone abroad in the gospel to all the world: "He that believeth is not condemned.
3. And even the reasons of the election of believers are graciously made known, and graciously confirmed: Christ"s death, resurrection, exaltation, and intercession.
(1) The death of Christ, as the great Propitiation for the sins of the world, utterly does away all guilt to those who sincerely receive it by faith. As the Son of God, he thus sets forth the infinite love of a God who laid down his life for our sake; as Son of man, making reconciliation for the sins of the people, he appeals on our behalf even to the infinite justice for our acquittal. And though we may still be frail, and sin may cleave to us, yet, if we are sincere in our faith, that atonement avails for all things and for ever.
(2) The resurrection of Christ, following after the expiation, is God"s sure setting-forth of the value of the expiation, and the effectiveness of the finished sacrifice. Raised for i.e. because of our justification". (Rom_4:25)
(3) The exaltation, as the resurrection completed, is the completing of the guarantee that we are accepted in him. And he is our Forerunner.
(4) The intercession, as the work of the exalted High Priest, is the continuous application of the atoning work, in itself for ever finished and for ever guaranteed. For returning prodigals, and for us with our frailties who have believed, he ever liveth to make intercession," and is therefore "able to save unto the uttermost.
Oh, then, whether we look to God who has chosen and justified us, or to him whom God hath set forth as a Propitiation, and again declared to be his Son, well-pleasing and beloved, by the raising from the dead; whether we regard God in Christ as the Source of our salvation, as the Effecter of salvation, or as the Manifester of salvation; whether we think of the past, the present, or the future in Christ; in any case we can take up the triumphant challenge given us by Paul, "It is God that justifieth; Who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus," etc. T.F.L.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv32, 33, 35, 38 He that spared not His own Son.
Rom_8:32
He that spared not His own Son.
Read full note →
Gods great gift the security for His other gifts
Note that--
I. God hath already given the very greatest thing to set my salvation agoing, viz., what every parent who had but one beloved son would surely feel the greatest of his treasures. In human transactions the pledge is but a minute proportion of the complete performance, and yet there is a distinct hope awakened of the entire fulfilment, from the token that has thus been put into your hands. But in this transaction the pledge is more valuable to the Giver than all that He hath pledged Himself for. We may, indeed, feel that the joys of eternity may be of greater value than all the firstfruits and tokens in the shape of grace and growing meetness, here. But God feels that He has already given what to Himself was of the greatest value.
II. The deep and mysterious suffering incurred at this first and greatest step in our salvation is now over. The travail of Christs soul hath already gone by; and now He has only to see of the fruit of this travail and be satisfied. When He set forth from glory on our worlds restoration, He had persecution and cruel martyrdom before Him; but what He thus originated with pain, He has only now to prosecute in peace and triumph to its consummation. Will the Father who spared not His own Son a deep humiliation to commence the enterprise of our recovery now refuse to magnify Him, and bring the enterprise of Him who is the Captain of this glorious warfare to its most honourable termination?
III. All which God hath done in the work of our redemption has been done entirely of free will. It was not because He owed it to us, but because His own heart was set upon it. This makes it a wholly different ease from that of a debtor who, after having made payment of so much, would like to get off from his obligation for the remainder. There is nought of this kind to stint the liberality of God. When He did give up His Son, it was because He so loved the world. It was because of Gods longing desire after the world that He gave up His Son unto the sacrifice; ands after the sacrifice has been gone through, He will not turn round upon His own favourite object, and recede from the world which He has done so much to save. That force of affection which bore down the obstacle that stood in its way will now bear onward with accelerated speed to the accomplishment of all the good that it is set upon. To do otherwise would be throwing away the purchase after the purchase-money had been given for it; and well may we be assured that after God has freely given such a price for our salvation, He will freely give all things necessary to make good that salvation.
IV. When He gave up His Son, it was on behalf of sinners with whom at the time He was at variance. It was at the period when a blow had been inflicted on the dignity of His government, and a sore outrage laid on Heavens high throne by the defiance of creatures whom its power could annihilate or sweep away. Now the state of matters is altered. The breach has been healed. The debt has been paid. And if God in the season of guilt gave up His Son, will He cease from giving now in the season of atonement? If, when nought ascended from the world but a smoke of abomination, the price of its redemption was freely surrendered, will there be no movement of grace now that there arises the incense of a sweet-smelling savour? And if in our state of condemnation, then, He delivered Him up for us all, is not the assurance doubly sure that, in our state of acceptance now, He will with Him freely give us all things?
V. He gave up His Son at a time when mercy was closed in as it were by the other attributes of His nature--when it had not yet found a way through justice and holiness of truth, and when it had to struggle against an obstacle high as the dignity of Heavens throne. It was in fact on very purpose to open an avenue through this else impassable barrier that Christ went forth. And is not the inference as resistless as it is animating--that the same mercy which forced a passage for itself through all those difficulties will, now that they are cleared away, burst forth in freest exuberance among all those for whom it scaled the mountain of separation. He who gave His Son while Justice was yet unappeased, will freely give all things now that Justice is satisfied. Conclusion: But this subject is inexhaustible. It is not the preciousness of Christ as being Himself a gift that the text leads me to expatiate on. It is the goodness of it as a pledge of other gifts. There are other securities for this than those on which I have insisted that might well cause the believer to rejoice in it as in a treasure the whole value of which is inestimable. For will God stamp dishonour on this His own great enterprise, and leave unfinished that which He hath so laboriously begun? Will He hold forth the economy of grace as an impotent abortion to the scorn of His enemies? Never was foundation more surely laid, nor can we tell how many those unshaken props are by which it upholds the confidence of a believer. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)
The logic of redeeming love
First, to speak as it is expressed in the negative, He spared not His own Son. First, take it in the first notion, as a word of bounty in reference to us; He did not spare Him, that is, He did not withhold Him; He was not unwilling to part with Him, or sparing to give Him. Now, for the better amplifying of this great gift to us, and the great love of God to us in it. We may take notice of it briefly in the several gradations of it, wherein it is considerable of us. First, for the kind of it. It was a Son: He spared not Him. There is many an one in the world that would be loth to part with a servant, such as he might be, but a son, that is somewhat more. There are a great many who could be content sometimes to spare many other things besides, so that you will be content to spare their children, or to let them to spare themselves. You know how it was with old Jacob, how loth he was to part with his son Benjamin. Secondly, for the propriety of it. As it was His Son which He did not spare, so it was His own Son too. He spared not Him. We see how all men are generally very indulgent of what belongs to themselves. Nurses and guardians and overseers are very often remiss and careless enough of other mens children which are committed to them, but their own are more indulged by them. His own Son--how so? Namely, by eternal and inexpressible generation, being of the same substance with the Father, begotten of Him before all worlds. Thirdly, it was His only Son likewise; it was the only begotten of the Father (Joh_1:14). This is a farther amplification of it to us, where there is store and choice and variety; it is not so hard or difficult a matter as otherwise to part with some one, but to part with an only son, that is a great matter indeed. Lastly, it was His dear Son, the Son of His love, as He is called in Col_1:13. Now what does all this teach us but to labour to work ourselves to the like disposition of spirit to God again? That we from henceforth should think nothing too good or too dear for Him. What can they spare for God that cannot spare Him a little time and opportunity for serving Him? It is a word of severity, and refers to Christ. He did not spare Him, that is, He did not favour Him; He did not spare to punish or to afflict Him. First, in His body, He did not spare Him. Secondly, in His name, He did not spare Him. Thirdly, in His soul, He did not spare Him. The reason of it was this, because He did not look upon Him in His person, but rather in His office, so far forth as He bare the burthen of our sins and transgressions upon Him. Therefore let us own this perfect satisfaction of Christ to the justice of His Father, and His Fathers general and universal punishing of Him, and not sparing Him at all. First, as it is a word of bounty, He did not spare to give Him. And secondly, as it is a word of severity, He did not spare to punish Him. Now the second is laid down in the affirmative or positive expression, which is in a sort included in the former: But delivered Him up for us all. First, for the action itself--He delivered Him up (Rom_4:25). There were three sorts of persons which had a hand in the delivering up of Christ. First, God delivered up His Son. Secondly, Christ delivered up Himself. Thirdly, Judas delivered up his Master. Now that which we have here exhibited to us is the former of these deliverings, to wit, Gods delivering up of His Son--He spared Him not, but delivered Him up. This He might be said to do two manner of ways especially. First, in regard of His eternal purpose and counsel. Secondly, in regard of His ordering and disposing of it in the fulness of time. But what did God deliver up this His Son unto? To the treachery of Judas, to the injustice of Pilate, to the malice of the Jews, to reproaches, and what not? The second is the persons it refers to, and who are more particularly concerned in it--For us all. The second is the inference or improvement of this premised propitiation, in these words, How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? First, take it simply and absolutely, as it lies in itself, and so there is this in it, that God will with Christ give all things freely to those who are true believers. There is here laid down a special privilege which does belong to the children of God. Wherein again there are three distinct particulars considerable. First, for the gift itself. This is here expressed to be all things (Psa_84:11). The second is the foundation of this gift, and that is, Christ with Him, while it is said here, with Him. This may be taken three manner of ways. First, by way of eminency: All things with Him, that is, all things in Him, as involved and implied. Secondly, by way of concomitancy: All things with Him, that is, all things to Him, as added and subjoined. Thirdly, by way of conveyance: All things with Him, that is, all things by Him, and through Him, and for Him, as dispensed and transmitted. The third is the manner or circumstance of donation; and that in our English translation is here expressed to be freely, He will freely give us all things. This is somewhat, but yet not all, which is intended here in the text; the Greek word signifies two things especially, not only to give freely, but also to give favourably. First, He gives us all things freely; to take it as it is here in our translation, as God gives us Christ Himself, so He gives us all things else freely with Christ. And when it is said freely, we are to take it in the full extent of freeness, freely without our desire, and freely without our desert; of His own accord, and upon His mere grace. But then if we take freely in the latitude of our English idiom and propriety, so there is still somewhat more in it. Freely, that is, largely and plentifully, without diminution. He giveth us all things richly to enjoy (1Ti_6:17). And freely, that is, readily and cheerfully, without restraint, not grudging, not repenting, not upbraiding. He gives us all things gratuitously. But then secondly, He gives to believers all things graciously, that is also, I say, here implied in the word in the text. When we say that God gives all things to His children favourably or graciously, there are two things in it; first, favourably, as to the principle. He gives them favourably, as to the principle, by intending favour to them in them, and giving them for that end. And He gives them favourably as to the effect, by making them favours, and doing them real good by them. Now further, secondly, we may look upon it in its connection and argumentatively, as inferred by rational consequence from that which went before. If God hath not spared His Son, but delivered Him up for us, we may well conclude that He will bestow all things else freely upon us. This is the main scope of the text, and the argument holds good upon a twofold ground. First, from the quality and condition of the persons, by comparing of them. If God had so much favour for us when we were enemies, how much more has He now that we are friends? Secondly, from the nature and condition of the gift itself. He that would give His Son will not stick to give anything else, because He that would give the greater will not stick to give the less. First, to make sure of the ground and conclusion itself, seeing our having of all things else does thus depend upon our having of Christ, and in a manner follows from it. Secondly, as we should make sure of the ground, so we should be also careful to make the improvement, and thus to reason and argue within ourselves, as the Apostle Paul here sets us an example. Here is that which may convince them of that diffidence and distrustfulness which is in them, and make them to be ashamed, as it were, of it. What, has God given thee the greater, and dost thou think that He will deny thee the less? Has He given thee heaven, and dost thou think that He will deny thee the earth? Has He given thee eternal things, and dost thou think that He will deny thee temporal? (Thomas Horton, D.D.)
Gods great and best gift to the world
I. The purport of the apostles assertion. It includes three capital points of Christian theology, viz.
1. That we are obnoxious to the punishment of death. He delivered Him for us; so then we ought to have been delivered up, that is, to penal suffering. This penalty pre-supposes transgression.
2. That the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man has appeared in the provision of a Divine Substitute. So God loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, etc. And having given Him for this purpose, He spared Him not from suffering. Not by any means that our Saviour suffered the identical punishment due to us; but its equivalent, inasmuch as the divinity of the sufferer stamped the suffering with infinite magnitude. He made a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, in virtue of which avenging justice can now no longer pursue, and redeeming mercy may honourably pardon the penitent sinner.
3. That the efficacy of the sin-offering is co-extensive with the range or influence of the sin. For us all. There is no limitation in the grace of God, nor of the expiatory effect of the Saviours sufferings, to any particular number of persons, any more than to any particular number or description of sins. If Christ died only for all believers, then sin has only affected all believers. No mans sins are more atoned for than another mans. The atonement in itself saves no man, and Christ by His death laid Gods way open to save everybody; but it did not necessitate the salvation of anybody; it must be apprehended by faith, or else no salvation will follow. Fear not, thou vilest of the vile! thou art as much an object of Gods love and of Christs redemption as was St. Paul. Look unto Him and be saved, even from the ends of the earth.
II. The objects of His anticipation. Why limit His meaning here again? He means literally what He says--all things. There is nothing to prevent Gods bestowing all things we need or can receive.
1. Not strictly all temporal gratifications. Many of them are unessential, and some of them prejudicial. But whatever of this worlds good shall subserve our convenience, and comport with that providential discipline by which our Heavenly Father is training us, we are entitled to expect. No good thing will He withhold, etc. Godliness is profitable for all things, even in regard to the present life, and shall give us the true enjoyment and use of all the good things which the providence of God bestows. We shall make more of them, we shall get more out of them; a religious poor man enjoys a great deal more than an irreligious rich man.
2. If these earthly blessings abound, they shall be a thousandfold enhanced, and if they are scanty, their absence shall be ten thousand times supplied to us by the better gifts of Gods grace--reconciliation, adoption, communion with a reconciled God, power over sin, heavenly dignity, peace in tribulation, composure in death.
3. The blessings of immortality--including the resurrection and glorification of the body, a crown, a kingdom, a joyous reunion with our old companions, and, above all, a view of the Lamb in His own light, and an eternity spent in His praise.
4. All this is ours, freely.
(1) Without reluctance, as to the disposition with which the boon originates.
(2) Without restriction, as to the persons on whom it is conferred.
(3) Without recompense, or purchase, or desert.
III. The force of the argument. With Him. It seems to refer to the gift of Christ--
1. As the signal and practical intimation of Gods perfect preparedness to give us all things. God is love, and no sooner had He called into existence objects on which He could exercise His affections, than the gushings of His heart flowed forth in streams of beneficence. But sin, alas! interposed; and if He had so pleased, sin might irremediably have cut off all desirable communication. But He willed to have mercy; and reached out His arms so far as to remove the obstruction. Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, so that it no longer after that necessitated the exclusion of any creature from Gods blessing.
2. As Himself intrinsically beyond all comparison more valuable than all things else. Having conferred the greater blessing, can He withhold the less? What good thing is so good in our estimation as that we dare not now claim it in the view of Christ! Has He given His Son? why should He not give His Spirit? why should He not communicate Himself to our souls?
3. As the intentional procuring cause of all things. Christ has obtained eternal redemption for us, with all its rich and varied benefits. Then not only may we, but we ought to expect them. We dishonour Christ by mistrust of the power of His saving merit. We forget how solemnly the Father is bound to the Son by covenant faithfulness; we forget how dear His own Son is to Him, and that even had He no interest in our welfare, yet He is sure to look favourably upon those who are interested in His Son.
Conclusion: Learn--
1. That the love of God the Father should be recognised as the source of our salvation and all our blessings.
2. That we cannot present a more effectual or successful plea to God in prayer, than an appeal to His past mercies in Christ.
3. That Christ, especially in His atoning character, is all in all. Sinner! embrace His atonement; for without it you can receive nothing. Believer! cleave to it; for with it you may receive all things. (W. M. Bunting.)
The gift that brings all gifts
We have here an allusion to the narrative of Abrahams offering up of Isaac. The same word which is employed in the Septuagint for withheld is employed here. Consider--
I. This mysterious act of Divine surrender. The analogy seems to suggest to us that something corresponding to the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarchs heart flitted across the Divine mind when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is the highest crown and glory of love. And notice--
1. How the reality of the surrender is emphasised by the closeness of the bond which knits together the Father and the Son. As of Abraham, so in this lofty example the Son is the only Son. This cannot be any mere equivalent for a Messiah, or for a man who was like God in purity of nature. For the force of the analogy and the emphasis of that word His own point to a uniqueness of relation and unparalleled closeness of intimacy. Having one Son, His well-beloved, He sent Him.
2. How the greatness of the surrender is made more emphatic by the negative and the positive. He spared not, but delivered Him up.
3. How the tenderness and the beneficence that were the sole motive of the surrender are lifted into light in for us all. One great throb of love to the whole of humanity led to that transcendent surrender of Gods unspeakable gift.
4. How this mysterious act is grasped by the apostle as the illuminating fact as to the whole Divine nature. We are accustomed to speak of Christs life of unselfishness and His death of beneficence as being the revelation of the love of God as well as of Christ, because we believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world, and that He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father. But my text bids us see the great demonstration of Gods love because the Fathers will, conceived of as distinct from, and yet harmonious with, the will of the Son, gives Him up for us.
II. The power of this Divine surrender to bring with it all other gifts.
1. The question requires for its answer only the belief in the unchangeableness of the Divine heart, and the uniformity of the Divine purpose. These recognised the conclusion follows. With Him He will freely give us all things. Because--
(1) The greater gift implies the less. We do not expect that a man that hands over £1,000,000 to another to help him, will stick at a farthing afterwards. If you give a diamond you may well give a box to keep it in. There is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving. The expression freely give implies a grace and a pleasantness in the act. God gives in Christ what we may reverently say it was something like pain to give. Will He not give the lesser which it is His joy to communicate?
(2) The purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without the bestowment of the lesser. He does not miscalculate His resources. Men build palaces and are bankrupt before the roof is on. God lays His plans with the knowledge of His powers, and having bestowed this large gift, is not going to have it bestowed in vain for want of some smaller ones to follow it up. Christ puts the same argument to us, beginning only at the other end of the process. It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you think He will not give you bread and water on the road to it? That is not Gods way. He that hath begun a good work will also perfect the same, and when He gave us His Son, He bound Himself to give as every blessing which was needed to make that Sons work complete.
(3) Everything is included and possessed in Christ when we receive Him. With Him Christ is as it were a great cornucopia, out of which will pour with magic affluence all manner of supplies according as we require. This fountain flows with milk, wine, and water, as men need. Everything is given us when Christ is given to us, because Christ is the Heir of all things, and we possess all things in Him; as some poor village maiden married to a prince in disguise, who on the morrow of her wedding finds that she is mistress of a kingdom.
2. And so just as that great gift is the illuminating fact in reference to the Divine heart, so is it the interpreting fact in reference to the Divine dealings. Only when we keep firm hold of Christ as the gift of God and the Explainer of all that God does, can we face the darkness, the perplexities, the torturing questions that harasses mens minds as they look upon the mysteries of human misery. That gift makes anything believable rather than that He should spare not His own Son, and then counterwork His own act by sending the world anything but good.
III. Some practical issues from these thoughts, in reference to our own belief and conduct.
1. Let us correct our estimates of the relative importance of the two sets of gifts. On the one side stands the solitary Christ; on the other side all the things that vulgar estimation recognises to be good are lumped together into an also. They are but the golden dust that may be filed off from the great ingot. They are secondary; He is the primary. What an inversion of our notions of good! Do you degrade all the worlds wealth, pleasantness, etc., into an also? Do you live as if you did? Which do you hunger for most, and labour for hardest? Seek ye first the kingdom, and the King, and all these things shall be added unto you.
2. Let these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts of the Christ. Tribulation, distress, etc., are some of the all things. And looking upon all, Paul says, They all work together for good; and in them all we may be more than conquerors. It would be a poor, shabby issue of such a great gift if it were only to be followed by the sweetnesses and prosperity of this world. But the point here is, inasmuch as He gives us all things, let us take all the things that come to us as being as distinctly the gifts of His love, as is the gift of Christ Himself. The diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and the pathetic sunset. The annual revolution whirls us through the balmy summer and the biting winter. Gods purpose is one. His methods vary. The road goes straight to its goal; but it sometimes runs in tunnels, and sometimes by sunny glades. Gods purpose is always love. His withdrawals are gifts. And sorrow is not the least of the benefits which come to us through the Man of Sorrows.
3. Let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet and peaceful faith. We find it a great deal easier to trust God for heaven than for earth. Many a man will venture his soul into Gods hands, who would hesitate to venture to-morrows food there. Why? Is it not because we want the less more really than we want the greater; that we can put ourselves off with faith for the one, and desire something more solid to grasp for the other? Live in the calm confidence that God gives all things; and gives us for to-morrow as for eternity; for earth as for heaven.
4. Make you quite sure that you have taken the great gift of God. He gives it to all the world, but they only have it who accept it by faith. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The unspeakable gift
Fear naturally follows guilt. When a breach has taken place the hardest to be won is always the offender. It is hard to believe that he whom I have provoked will forgive me, but how much harder is it to believe that he will be my greatest friend! For friendship does not necessarily succeed reconciliation, nor munificence forgiveness. It is no easy thing for a sinner to place his faith and hope in God. But--
1. It is necessary. We shall never go to Him till we can see that He is ready to forgive.
2. It is attainable. He has caused His goodness to pass before us, and the despairing soul reasons itself into light and comfort from the text. Note--
I. A wonderful fact. There are marvellous displays of Gods power, wisdom, truth, holiness; but the miracle before us is a miracle of love. To magnify this goodness observe--
1. The boon He did not withhold. He spared not His own Son. How many things could you resign before you spared a child! How unwilling was Jacob to spare Benjamin though he had many children; how unwilling David to give up even a rebellious Absalom! History mentions a poor family in Germany who were ready to perish in the time of famine. The husband proposed to the wife to sell one of their children for bread. At length she consents. But which of them shall it be? The eldest was named, but he was the beginning of their strength. The second was the living image of his father. In the third the features of the mother breathed. The last was the child of their old age. And so they consented to starve together rather than sacrifice one. What was the severest trial of Abrahams regard for God? Now I know that thou fearest Me, see that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me, How dignified was Gods Son (Heb_1:5-6). How dear was Gods Son! The Son of His love; who always did the things that pleased Him; in Him His soul delighted! Yet He spared not His own Son.
2. The state into which He surrendered Him. He delivered Him up. To what? To a world that disowned Him. To a people that abhorred Him, though prepared by miracles, and ordinances, and prophecies, to receive Him (Joh_1:11). To obscurity and indigence, He was born in a stable, and through life He had not where to lay His head. To infamy and scorn. To pain and anguish. To be betrayed by Judas; to be denied by Peter; to be forsaken of all. To Caiaphas and Herod--who set Him at nought; to Pilate--who condemned Him; to the Romans--who crucified Him. Surely here is love for which we want a name! Especially when we consider--
3. Those for whose advantage He was given. Not angels; but men. Not men only; but sinners. Not sinners humbled under a sense of our misery, and applying for mercy; but sinners regardless of their deliverance, and abusing the Divine goodness. To love parents, children, friends, is just and natural. To do good to strangers is humane. To relieve the poor and needy is kind and generous. But to love our enemies is Divine. And not for a few of these rebels, but for all.
II. The inference.
1. The way in which He communicates His favours--freely. If the blessings are great, they are equally gracious: and we are invited to come and take of the water of life freely.
2. The extent of His liberality--all things--pardon, to remove our guilt; strength, to aid us in duty; consolation in distress; guidance in perplexity; heaven, and supplies for the wilderness on this side of it. The grant has only one limitation--the goodness of the things conferred; of this God only is the Judge, and therefore with Him the determination must be left.
3. The reasonableness of our most enlarged expectation. How shall He not with Him.
(1) He was designed to prepare the way for the communication of all the blessings we need. Sin had stopped the effusion of the Divine goodness, but He came to remove every obstruction, and to render the exercise of Divine favour consistent with the honour of Divine government. And now, if we go to God there is nothing to hinder His mercy.
(2) He is superior to every other blessing. You are sometimes dismayed at the thought of your demerit; but if your demerit restrained the Divine goodness, the Saviour would never have appeared. You are sometimes dismayed at the greatness of the blessing you ask; but if the greatness of the blessing restrained the Divine goodness, He would have denied giving His own Son. What God has already given is infinitely more precious than anything we can in future implore.
(3) Yea, He is in reality every other blessing; and we have all with Him. Conclusion: The subject should--
1. Inspire you with encouragement. Never entertain any harsh and gloomy notions of God.
2. Impose upon you submission. Is anything denied you that seems desirable? He distinguishes between your welfare and your wishes. The blessing is not withheld from a want of power or love.
3. Inflame you with gratitude. What shall I render? etc. (W. Jay.)
Our Fathers beneficence
The text is an epitome of Christianity. It is history declaring the most glorious fact, and logic deducing the most precious assurance. The history and the logic are alike Divine, for the writer spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost.
1. God is a benefactor. He made everything and pronounced it good; He manages everything, and His management is good. He gives us all things richly to enjoy.
2. Believers are His special beneficiaries. His tender mercy is over all His works, but His delights are with those who know and love Him. Here the Father speaks to His family only, that with faith they may adhere to Him more closely; that with hope they may rejoice in Him more ardently; and that with love they may serve Him more adequately. The text teaches us that Gods beneficence is--
I. Perfect. The gifts of God are twofold--the gift of His Son and the gift of all things; and this beneficence is perfect because it is most ample and comprehensive. The first of these gifts is unmistakable; but the other is not thus definite. It is not to be taken absolutely, because God does not endow His children equally and absolutely. And yet there is a most important sense in which God bestows all things on His people.
1. About all things spiritual there can be no controversy. God gives all these to all His children alike. He feeds them all with the same milk of the Word and the same strong meat of truth, He pours upon them all the same Spirit, kindles and maintains in them all the same Divine life, leads them in the same way, to the same heaven. If we have not, it is either because we ask not or because we ask amiss. All things are for us, and it is our own fault if we do not possess them--mercy to pardon us, grace to help us, etc.
2. All things secular are to be understood in consonance with all things spiritual, The secularities that subserve our spiritual life our Heavenly Father bestows; all else He with holds or takes away. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Good is a relative term. What is good for one man may not be good for another, or for the same man in different circumstances. We must leave the interpretation of the text in specific cases to its Author. He alone can justly determine what is good.
II. Certain. The gift of Gods Son assures us of the gift of all things, because of--
1. Their comparative magnitude. The gifts of God vary, but one among all stands pre-eminent. This is an infinite gift, because the Son of God is an infinite being; and it is the greatest of all possible gifts because it is God Himself. This gift throws every other gift into shade. When the sun rises he casts the stars into oblivion. And can such a gift be conferred, and minor ones denied? May we call the ocean ours, and yet be forbidden to drink of the brook by the way?
2. Their close connection. The gift is related to the gifts--
(1) as means to ends. The gift of Gods Son is the beneficence of sacrifice, the gift of all things is the beneficence of sufficiency, and the former is the means of the latter.
(2) As co-essential means. The gift of Gods Son is the means of salvation; but salvation itself is a means, it is the means of Gods glory and of eternal life. The holy is a means of the holiest, the life below is a means of the life above. The gift and each and all of the gifts are links of the golden chain that draws us up to the throne of God.
3. The Givers motive and manner. To give freely is to give lovingly and readily, or from a loving motive and in a ready manner. (J. G. Manly.)
All with Christ
In order to grasp the argument we must understand that Paul is speaking to believers in the midst of a groaning world whose hope needed to be sustained by the strongest evidence. It was not enough to speak of Gods purpose, and promise, so a more triumphant argument was used. God has already done so much that all that remains to be done is nothing in comparison. As a pledge to us that the great scheme of redemption shall not be defeated, God has Himself embarked in it so vast an investment that failure would not only be disastrous to us, but would involve a Divine bankruptcy--omnipotence baffled, external purpose defeated, an infinite outlay of Divine love thrown away. Let us look--
I. At our present standing place between the past and the future.
1. The past--God hath not spared His own Son, but given Him up for us all. For us all suggests a collective interest, and not merely an individual share in the great transaction. If at times the soundness of redemption is felt to arise from a personal appropriation of its benefits, yet there is peculiar consolation in the view of it which embraces the entire Church of the firstborn.
2. That which is to come is the gift of all things which are to work together for good to them that love God (see also 1Co_2:21). Not only shall existing agencies, however adverse, be pressed into the service of redemption; but fresh agencies shall be brought forward at their appointed time to complete the work. We may therefore hail every fresh discovery in science, etc., as only another helper of Gods work. The earth shall help the woman, and all the wealth of nations shall flow into the city of God.
3. Our position on this line of redemption is between the past and the future. The one gift is ours, the second gift not yet. The extent of our realisations as compared with the extent of our hopes leaves much to be accomplished.
II. The pledge which is thus furnished. We are not left to the bare power or willingness or promise of God to finish the work; we have in the past gift an advanced security as to the triumphant result. I know of no text that is better adapted to give a material guarantee of the final emancipation of the sons of God. As we contemplate the Cross of Christ we may adopt the sentiment of Manoahs wife (Jdg_13:23). In arguing from the past to the future we mark--
1. That, as a Divine work, the greatest thing is done already. In looking along the line of redemption we see that the crisis of it is past. To us the benefits of salvation widen and grow in value, but to God the most valuable thing has been introduced into the process.
2. The sufferings of Christ. He was not spared. And now God hath exalted Him to His own right hand to perfect the work. And we may observe--
(1) That one part of His mediatorial work cost Him much more than the other. We are reconciled by His death, and we are saved by His life. One part cost Him tears, agony, and blood; the other is carried on amidst the joy of His exaltation.
(2) That the most costly part is that which is past and finished, and the less costly part of it is that which is to come.
(3) That the connection between the two is that the finishing of the salvation is the very fruit of all He endured. If God spared Him not, shall He not let Him see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied?
3. The grace which pervades the entire plan of redemption. It was not because He owed it to us, but because His own heart was set upon it. And shall the love which gave us Christ begin to measure out niggard bestowments when the greatest triumph is about to be realised in peopling heaven with redeemed souls?
4. The objects of Divine mercy. What has been done in the past was done whilst we were yet enemies. But we are now sons. Shall God do so much for His enemies, and then begin to withhold His hand? In conclusion: Our subject--
1. Affords the strongest possible assurance of the completion of Gods great plans. The Cross and the empty grave are pledges that the issue shall be triumphant, and that all things shall serve that end.
2. Shows who they are who are the real beneficiaries of God, whom all things serve. With Christ, not without Him, are all things ours. (P. Strutt.)
All things with Christ
I. The important fact asserted.
1. He spared not His own Son, etc. Man, made upright, lost the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and then became corrupt and could not extricate himself. Gods mercy found remedy--He determined to give His Son. Spare has two senses.
(1) He did not keep Him back; there was no obligation in God thus to give us Jesus. Herein is love, etc.
(2) He did not excuse Him from suffering. The Divine nature could not suffer, but gave efficacy.
2. It was God that delivered Him up; whatever was done by Judas or Pilate was done by permission.
3. For us--not our remote advantage merely, as in resurrection, but in our stead--that we might not perish (Isa_53:1-12.).
4. For us all. Not some men of all countries, but for every man.
II. The inference deduced from it. All things necessary and salutary.
1. All the comforts of this life which it is safe and proper we should enjoy. God has the prerogative of knowing what is best for us. He can best cater for us. Be thankful that He deigns to do this. Connect even our temporal blessings with the atonement of the Lord Jesus.
2. Chiefly spiritual blessings. The interrogation here is an assertion; to suppose the contrary would be ridiculous. Three positions may support this inference.
(1) If He gave His Son to enemies what will He give to us who have thrown our arms away (chap. 5.)?
(2) He gave Him unsought, and even undesired. The first step to mans recovery was taken in God.
(3) He gave us His best gift. His own Son--a Divine person. If a creature, the apostle would have magnified the greatness of the purchase with the small price. He has no such other gift. Omnipotence is limited here; we can ask no blessing adequate to this: hence what is the pardon of sins to God? Nay, He delights in it. Why, then, should He withhold inferior blessings? We are warranted to ask till we think of some gift greater than Jesus.
3. He will freely give us all things. No regard to merit or worthiness in the receiver. As He had no such regard when He gave His Son, so He yet acts freely--pardons, sanctifies, saves to heaven freely. (J. Summerfield, A.M.)
All things with Christ
It is a joint gift, so to speak, to which God has pledged Himself through the scheme of redemption--the gift of all things with Christ, but of nothing without Christ. If you will take Christ you may be sure of everything besides; but if you refuse Christ there is no promise of anything. There is perhaps no passage of Scripture which sets before you the love of God more overpoweringly than it is set in our text; not one which grounds on this love a more powerful argument why we should expect large things from the benevolence of our Maker; and yet is this very passage so constructed as to force on our attention that God has no mercy whatsoever for the sinful except through His Son. And this peculiarity in the text ought also to furnish a rule as to what may be lawful in Christian desires, and the subject of the Christians prayers. Is the thing one with which Christ may be joined? The promise is that God will give me all things with Christ; but such a promise excludes whatsoever is not in harmony with Christ. Who can fail to see how chastening an influence would be exerted on our wishes and prayers if the exclusiveness as well as the comprehensiveness of a promise were borne diligently in mind? Tell me that all things are promised, and I might ask for riches, and pleasures, and honours; but tell me that all things are promised with Christ, and I shall be ashamed to solicit what would not combine well with Christ. But note yet again that God gives nothing to His people with which He does not at the same time give Christ. He may give riches, but He gives Christ with the riches, so that, sanctified by the Redeemer, they shall be employed to His glory. He may give sources of earthly happiness, but He gives Christ with them to make them doubly sweet, and yet to prevent their drawing off the affections from heavenly joys. He may give trouble, but He gives Christ to enlighten darkness, to hush disquietude. The Christian shall find nothing precious in which he does not find Christ. (H. Melvill, B.D.)
All things with Christ
If you were in prison, and the clemency of legal authority should pronounce your pardon, and the messenger who brought it to your cell should find you a cripple would you not expect that the same clemency would also reach its aid to the crippled limbs? If it would furnish no such aid as you lifted your hopeless eye to the opened door, you would execrate the misnamed mercy that had pardoned you! You would ask, Why torment me with an offer impossible for me to accept? There is a Holy Spirit for you as well as a crucified Christ. If you were an undutiful son whose profligacy had plunged you into misery, and the fatherly affection which you had abused should follow you still, and not only send you a message of forgiveness, but sacrifice the most valuable of his possessions that you might be free to return, could you have any thought that the same affection, when you had worked your way back to the door of the paternal mansion and stood there in want, would refuse a morsel of bread to your hungry lips? (I. S. Spencer, D.D.)
All things with Christ
The greater ever includes the less. If an estate is bequeathed to me and becomes my own, I have complete possession alike of the whole and of its parts. I can thin the timber, or fell it and realise the gain. I can dig out the minerals and sell them, or build with them, or smelt them as I please. He who transfers to me his garden, conveys to me not only the plot of ground encircled by the fence, but its fruit-trees, shrubs, and flowers. He who spares not his own purse, but delivers it up for me, a free and loving gift, how shall he not with it freely give therewith the gold that it contains? But this is what I read concerning my Saviour: It hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. Then all the fulness describes the extent of my resources, and Jesus says, My joy shall remain in you, and your joy shall be full. I read of my Saviour, given for me, that the Father hath committed all things into His hand; then these, too, are mine; and Paul positively says so in as many words--all things are yours, for ye are Christs, and Christ is Gods; having nothing, and yet possessing all things. I read of Him that all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. And I read also that He giveth strength to His people, and that we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. No wonder with such omnipotent resources that Paul says, I can do all things through Christ strengthening me. No wonder that with the Lord for his Shepherd, David says, I shall not want. Do not minify the lot of your inheritance. Cultivate large views as to the extent of your resources. Live near to God, strong in your loyalty to Jesus, and boldly draw even in the hardest times on the Bank of Faith. That can never fail, however great the run upon it; as long as Gods exchequer endures your cheques will never be returned; your allowances during the days of your earthly minority shall be on a scale commensurate with the royal wealth of the King, your Father, and when the shadow of death on times dial announces the attainment of your majority, then shall you come into full possession of your estate, the inheritance of those who are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. God spared not His own Son, but that did not lesson His resources. Human resources grow less and less in proportion as the outgoings from them are more and more. But it is far otherwise with the resources of the Christian whose whole fortune is invested in the love of God. He gave Himself, and yet hath all to give. The glorious sun, how little it feels the mighty drain on its resources! What oceans of glowing, light it hath poured forth since the day when God said, Let light be! What a vast and wide succession of autumn fields he has nursed and ripened into rich and golden corn; what mountains of ice he has thawed; what untold snows he has melted into beneficent and fertile streams; what generations of luscious fruits and blooming flowers he hath matured and painted in fair colours; what magical changes he hath wrought in the blue heavens above and on the green earth beneath since the day when God first hung His brilliant lamp among the stars and charged His mighty reservoir with glorious power! And yet His glowing furnace has never cooled, neither is His natural strength abated; and to-day it shines abroad in pristine glory, true symbol of the exhaustless bounty of its God. So is it with the Sun of Righteousness. He who spared not Himself, but delivered Himself up to pour out His whole Divine soul to kindle life and light, to conquer death and darkness and open heaven to the human race, how shall He not, how can He help, impelled for ever by the same love, lifting up: my soul, lightening my burden, succouring my spirit, soothing my sorrows, cheering my heart, and drying my tears? He must and will. His love is as great as His power, and neither knows measure nor end. (J. Jackson Wray.)
The death of Christ and its consequences
I. How the death of Christ is here expressed.
1. Negatively--He spared not His own Son.
(1) Gods act. There is a twofold not-sparing.
(a) In a way of impartial justice (2Pe_2:4-5). No clemency, but deserved punishment. So God spared not Christ when He took upon Him to satisfy for our sins (Zec_13:7).
(b) In a way of eminent and free bounty. We are sparing of those things which are most precious to us; but upon great occasions we part with them (Joh_3:16).
(2) The object--His own Son not an adopted son, but only-begotten. What dearer to parents than their children? But Gods love to Christ is not to be measured by an ordinary standard. Let us consider what might have moved God to spare His Son.
(a) The incomparable worth and excellency of His person (Php_2:6).
(b) The singular and infinite love between God and Christ (Col_1:13). The Father loved Him dearly; and we are chary of what we tenderly love (Joh_1:18; Pro_8:30).
(c) No equal or advantageous exchange. What could God gain that might be an equal recompense for the death of Christ? Now no man doth give much for what is but little esteemed; but God gave His own Son to recover the perishing world.
2. Positively--But delivered Him up for us all. Mark--
(1) The person who--God. This word is used of several agents: Judas (Joh_19:11), Pilate (Joh_19:16), the high-priests (Mat_27:2), the people (Mat_20:19); yea, Christ delivered up Himself (Rom_4:25); here, God delivered Him. One word is used, but the act proceeded from several causes; the people delivered Him out of ignorance and inconsiderate zeal, Judas out of covetousness and treachery, the high-priests out of malice and envy, Pilate out of a faulty compliance with the humours of the people, Christ out of obedience to God, God Himself to show His infinite love for us. It is for our comfort to observe that it is Gods act. The law which condemneth us is the law of God; the wrath and punishment which we fear is the wrath of God; and the fountain of all the blessings we expect is the favour of God; and God delivered Christ up for us all, to assure our comfort, peace, and hope.
(2) The act--He delivered Him up, not only to be made flesh for us (Joh_1:14), which was a state at the greatest distance from His nature, who was a pure spirit. But God, who is a spirit, was made flesh that He might be nearer to us, and took a mother upon earth that we might have a Father in heaven. But also made sin for us (2Co_5:21; Rom_8:3) and a curse for us (Gal_3:13).
(3) The persons for whom--for the cursed race of fallen Adam, who had no strength to do anything for themselves.
II. God having laid this foundation, let us see what a superstructure of grace is built thereon, and He doth freely give us all things.
1. All good things are the gift of God (Jam_1:17); and whatever God giveth, He giveth freely, for there can be no pre-obligation upon Him (chap. 11:35). But here the chief thing considerable is the largeness of the gift. Both the creature and the Creator, from God to the poorest thing in the world, through Jesus Christ all is ours (Rev_21:7).
2. This all things reacheth to heaven and earth (1Ti_4:8).
3. This all things concerneth the whole man--
(1) The body (Mat_6:33). He that hath any place or office hath the perquisites of the place or office.
(2) The soul (2Pe_1:2).
4. All things that are for our real advantage, of what nature soever they be (1Co_3:21; Psa_84:11).
III. The strength and the force of the inference. This broad and ample foundation will support the building.
1. The giving of Christ is a sign and pledge of His great love to us. And what will not love, and great love, do for those whom it loveth (Joh_3:16; 1Jn_4:10)?
2. Christ is the greatest and most precious gift; and surely God, that hath given so great a benefit, will He stick at lesser things? He that hath given a pound, will He not give a farthing? Hath He given Christ, and will He not give pardon to cancel our defects, and grace to do our duty? comfort to support us in our afflictions? supplies to maintain and protect us during our services? and finally, will He not reward us after we have served Him? Reconciliation by His death is propounded as a more difficult thing than salvation by His life (Rom_5:10).
3. It is a gift in order to other things; and therefore He will complete that gift. Christ came to purchase all manner of benefits--the favour, the image, the everlasting fruition of the glory of God. Now, will God by an antecedent bounty lay the foundation so deep, and withhold the consequent bounty? Shall so great a price be paid and we obtain nothing?
4. The giving of Christ showeth how freely God will give all things to us: He gave Christ unasked, and unsought too.
IV. Who have an interest in Christ: and may reason thus within themselves--Shall He not also together with Him give us all things?
1. Those to whom God giveth Christ. We read sometimes of Christ given for us, and sometimes of Christ given to us. The one speaketh the love of God to lost man, the other Gods love to us in particular (Gal_1:10; Rev_1:5). The first gift is Christ (Joh_5:12; Heb_3:14; 2Co_13:5). We do not live in the body till we be united to the head; nor till we have Christ, do we receive the saving effects of His grace; clear that once, and shall He not with Him give us all things? God offereth Him to all, but He giveth Him to you when you believe.
2. Those that give up themselves to Christ (1Co_3:22). If you be to Christ what Christ was to God, a dedicated servant, ever to do the things that please Him; when you enter into covenant with Him, and devote yourselves to His use and service. If you be sincere and hearty in this, you need not doubt a plentiful allowance. (T. Manton, D.D.)
On the passion
I. The person delivered. His own Son. This, though we make it the first step, yet indeed is the top of the ladder, from which the light of His countenance shineth upon us, and showeth that He loved us as His own Son; nay, more. In this manifestation of His love He appeareth rather a Father to us than to Him. He will rob Himself to enrich us; and, to make us His children, deliver up His own Son.
1. A strange contemplation it is. Can God delight to make His own Son a sacrifice who would not suffer Abraham to offer up his? Or might He not have taken an angel for His Son, as He did a ram for Isaac? It was His will to deliver Him; and this cleareth all doubts. If God will do anything, we have but one word left us for answer, Amen! Let it be done! He might not have done it. He might, without impairing of His justice, have kept Him still in His bosom; but as of His own will He begat us with the word of truth (Jam_1:18), so He delivered up His own Son because He would. For as in the creation God might have made man by His word alone, yet wrought him out of the earth; so, in the great work of our redemption, He did not send a Moses or an angel, but delivered up His own Son, and so gave a price infinitely above that which He bought. He was pleased to pay dear for His affection to us. How should this flame of Gods love kindle love in us! That benefit is great which preventeth our prayers; that is greater which is above our hope; that is yet greater that exceedeth our desires: but how great is that which over-runneth our opinion, yea, swalloweth it up! Certainly, had not God revealed His will, we could not have desired it, but our prayers would have been blasphemy; our hope, madness; our wish, sacrilege; and our opinion, impiety.
2. And now if any ask, What moved His will? surely no loveliness in the object. In it there was nothing but loath-someness, and such enmity as might make Him rather send down fire and brimstone than His Son. That which moved Him was in Himself, His compassion. He loved us in our blood; and loving us, He bid us live (Eze_16:6); and, that we might live, delivered up His own Son to death. Mercy is all our plea, and it was all His motive; and wrought in Him a will, a cheerful will.
II. The delivery. Delivered He was--
1. Into the virgins womb. That was a strange descent; and even then, at His birth, began His passion. Here He was made an object for the malice of men and the rage of the devil to work on.
2. Being born, what was His whole life but delivery from sorrow to sorrow? What creature was there to whom He was not delivered? Delivered He was to the angels; to keep Him, you will say, in all His ways (Psa_91:11). But what need had He of angels who was Lord of the angels? He was delivered to Joseph and Mary, to whom He was subject and obedient (Luk_2:51). Delivered He was to an occupation and trade. He was delivered from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod to Pilate again, and from Pilate to the Cross. He was delivered to the devil himself, and to the power of darkness. He was delivered in His body, and in His soul. Delivered He was to envy, which delivered Him (Mat_27:18); to treachery, which betrayed Him; to malice, which scourged Him; to pride, which scorned Him; to contempt, which spat upon Him; to all those furious passions which turn men into devils.
3. He was delivered not only to their passions, but to His own also, which as man He carried about with Him (Joh_12:27; Luk_22:44; Mat_26:37-38). Trouble, vexation, agony, heaviness, and sorrow were the bitter ingredients which filled up His cup so full that He made it His prayer to have it taken out of His hand (Mar_14:36). He who as God could have commanded a legion of angels, as man had need of one to comfort Him.
4. Can the Son of God be delivered further? Delivered He was--not to despair, for that was impossible; nor to the torments of hell, which could never seize on His innocent soul; but to the wrath of God (Psa_102:3-4; Psa_22:15), the terriblest thing in the world; the sting of sin, which is the sting of death. It were impiety to think that the blessed martyrs were more patient than Christ. Yet who of all that noble army ever cried out they were forsaken? Their torture was their triumph; their afflictions were their melody. But what speak we of martyrs? Divers sinners have been delivered up to afflictions and crosses, nay, to the anger of God; but never yet any so delivered as Christ. God, in His approaches of justice toward the sinner to correct him, may seem to go, like the consuls of Rome, with His rods and His axes carried before Him. Many sinners have felt His rods. But Christ was struck, as it were, with His axe. Others have trembled under His wrath, but Christ was even consumed by the stroke of His hand (Psa_39:10). I mention not the shame or the torment of the Cross; for the thieves endured the same. But His soul was crucified more than His body, and His heart had sharper nails to pierce it than His hands or His feet.
5. But to rise one step more. He delivered, and in a manner forsook Him; denied relief, withdrew comfort, stood, as it were, afar off, and let him fight it out unto death (Isa_63:5; Psa_18:41; Mat_27:46).
(1) There now hangeth His sacred body on the Cross, not so much afflicted with His passion as His soul was wounded with compassion; with compassion on His mother, on His disciples, on the Jews, on the temple, on all mankind; bearing the burden of all; delivered to a sense of their sins who feel them not, and to a sense of theirs who groan under them; delivered up to all the sorrows which all men have felt, or shall feel to the time He shall come again in glory.
(2) The last delivery was of His soul into His Fathers hands. Who can fathom this depth? No tongue, neither of men nor angels, is able to express it. The most powerful eloquence is the threnody of a broken heart; for there Christs death speaketh itself, and the virtue and power of it reflecteth back again upon Him, and reacheth Him at the right hand of God, where His wounds are open, His merits vocal, interceding for us to the end of the world.
III. The persons for whom.
1. For us. A contemplation full of comfort, but not so easy to digest. Why for us? And we must go out of the world to find the reason. It was the love of God to mankind (Tit_3:4). And what was in mankind but enmity, sin, and deformity? which are no proper motives to draw on love. For us men, then, and for us sinners, was Christ delivered (Isa_53:5). So that He was delivered up not only to the Cross and shame, but to our sins, which nailed Him to the Cross. Our treachery was the Judas which betrayed Him; our malice, the Jews which accused Him; our perjury, the false witness against Him; our injustice, the Pilate that condemned Him. Our pride scorned Him; our envy grinned at Him; our luxury spat upon Him; our covetousness sold Him. He delivered Him up for us sinners. No sin there is which His blood will not wash away, but final impenitency; which is not so much a sin as the sealing up of the body of sin when the measure is full.
2. For us all; for all have sinned (chap. 5:12). The blood of Christ is sufficient to wash away the sins of the world, nay, of a thousand worlds. Christ paid down a ransom of so infinite a value that it might redeem all that are, or possibly might be, under captivity. But none are actually redeemed but they who do as He commandeth, that is, believe and repent. Infidelity and impenitency only limit a proposition so general, and bound so saving and universal, and contract all into a few.
IV. The end of all. That we may have all things. God cannot but give when we are fit to receive; and in Christ we are made capable. When He is given, all things are given with Him--more than we can desire, more than we can conceive. (A. Farindon, B.D.)
The great fact and the just inference
It may assist us in understanding the text if we take a brief view of the inventory of a believers privileges in this chapter.
1. Their free and full justification by faith in Christ (verse 1).
2. Their regeneration by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost (verses 8-10).
3. The knowledge which they have of the relation to God as His children by the testimony of the Holy Spirit (verses 15, 16).
4. Their right to eternal life (verse 17).
5. Their title to such helps of providence and grace as may be necessary to prepare them fully for that inheritance and to conduct them safely to it (verses 26, 28). It is after this review that the apostle exclaims, What shall we then say to these things? etc. Consider--
I. The fact asserted in the text. This fact supposes the guilty, fallen, helpless condition of man without Christ. Now it was when the whole race was in this condition that--
1. God spared not His own Son, i.e.
(1) He did not withhold Him when the necessities of our condition required such a gift. This implies that God might have spared Him; He was under no obligation or compulsion of justice.
(2) He did not exempt Him from the sufferings subsequent upon His undertaking the mediatorial and atoning office. The innocent infirmity of our Saviours human nature wished to have been spared. But He could not be spared (as the fact proved) and we spared too. Had it been possible, in any other way, in answer to the prayer of such a Son, that other way would have been preferred. But He who saved others could not, in consistency with the engagement into which He had entered, and with the claims of God on the Redeemer, save Himself from death.
2. He delivered Him up.
(1) It was the permissive providence of God which delivered Him to the malice of the chief priests, etc., etc.
(2) He was thus delivered up for us. And this does not mean that He died in a general sense for our ultimate benefit, by any circuitous process, but instead of us. And this is the great doctrine of vicarious atonement and expiation, on which hang all our hopes, and from which flow all our legitimate comforts.
II. The inference from this fact. By a very common mode of speech this interrogatory is equivalent to the strongest possible affirmation.
1. The all things are, of course, only all things conducive to the great purpose of our being, and especially to the great purpose of our redemption.
(1) It may, doubtless, include all such comforts and blessings of the present life as God sees to be safe and fitting for us to possess. More than this no man in his senses would wish to have. Who would wish to have more worldly good of any kind than God sees to be safe and proper for him? Nor have we any right to complain that God has reserved to Himself the power of deciding how much of worldly good will be consistent with our highest welfare. Has anybody with common understanding, who has lived twenty years, not made the humbling discovery that, if he were left to choose his own lot, he would very often choose amiss? Who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? How often, as an old Puritan remarked, if we were left to carve our own portion, should we cut our own fingers? None but God thoroughly understands the bearing of one thing on another; none but He so accurately sees the end from the beginning; none but He is so intimately acquainted with the peculiarities of every mans moral and mental constitution as to be able to see what will certainly be best for each individual.
(2) By all things especially are meant things spiritual and eternal catalogued in this chapter. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us--the pardon of our sins, and the justification of our persons; His Holy Spirit to renew our natures; the witness of our adoption, etc., etc.
2. Now consider, in support of the view which the apostle here takes of the all things that in giving us His own Son--
(1) God bestowed a boon upon His enemies. What blessings, then, would He refuse to His friends, to His children? This is the apostles own argument in chap. 5.
(2) God bestowed a boon which was in the first instance unasked, unsought, undesired. If the heart of God had never moved towards us, not the heart of any one human being would ever have moved towards God. If God had not taken this first step, not one of you would ever have had the smallest inclination to take one step towards God and goodness. Well, then, if the boon was unsought, what will not God give to His own elect who day and night cry unto Him--what will not God give in answer to the inwrought prayer which His own Spirit inspires?
(3) God gave His greatest and best gift. The stress lies here: His own Son--His proper Son--His only Son. Were He to ransack His universe He could not find such another boon to confer. You think it a great thing that God should give you pardon for your innumerable sins. But though so great a thing, it is comparatively a little thing on the part of God; it implies no sacrifice; His justice is not compromised, for Christ has removed all barriers by His atonement. But when God gave His Son there was great sacrifice. He who finds it quite easy to do everything just because He wills it; He who finds it perfectly easy to make a world when He chooses to make one; He who has only to say, Let there be light, and light is, is represented as obliged to use expedients and counsel, to make one thing fit another, when He wants to save a sinner. In doing this, then, in giving His own Son, He went to the utmost length to which even Divine compassion can go. Whatever God gives you after this, He gives you a less blessing than when He gave Christ. You think it a great thing that God should give you a place in heaven. But why not? That is nothing to what He did long before you were born, when He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
3. The same arguments go to show that God will freely give these things. In the language of Scripture, a thing is said to be given freely which is given without reference to the worthiness of the party. Now nothing can be more free than the gift of Christ; none of us can pretend, on good grounds, to have deserved anything at the hand of God. God looked just at mans necessities, and at nothing else, when He gave a Saviour; and He acts, we are told, in the same way in the dispensation of the blessings which are purchased by the death of Christ, Conclusion; We learn from the text--l. The close connection between the great doctrines of the gospel and the comfort and stability of Christian experience and practice.
2. With what sentiments and views you ought to approach God the Father. (Jabez Bunting, D.D.)
The wants of men, and the supplies of God
I. Man requires immense supplies from God to secure for Him a happy destiny.
1. The ordinary. All creatures must be dependent upon communications from their Creator for being and well-being. The wants of intelligent beings increase as they advance. The wants of a man are greater than those of an infant. The wants of civilised nations are greater than those of savage tribes. As an intelligent being advances, his need multiplies, his capacities expand. The greater the creature the more deeply does he feel his dependence. What oceans of blessings will one solitary spirit require from God to make it happy through the endless ages of its history!
2. The extraordinary. He needs the pardon of his sin--the rectification of all the errors connected with his intellect, conscience, and heart--supplies of moral power to vanquish his spiritual foes, to resist the evil and to pursue the good. Thus he requires from his Maker infinitely more than an unfallen spirit.
II. The great God has already bestowed on man a gift of unutterable worth for this purpose. Who can express the infinite value of the gift in language more simple and significant than that of the text? 1, He spared not His own. What? Worlds, systems, universe? These are toys in the comparison. His own Son. He did not keep Him back, as He might have done, when the miseries of humanity cried for Him.
2. But delivered Him up. To what? To the heart of friendship--to the seat of honour? No; to the wrath of His enemies, to ignominy to unutterable anguish, to the hottest rage of hell.
3. For us all.
III. This gift is a certain pledge to the Christian that whatever else is necessary shall follow. The argument is from the greater to the less, and may be illustrated as follows:--That this greatest gift--
1. Is of more worth than any amount of blessing that a Christian can possibly require through the interminable future of his being.
2. Was bestowed for the same end as that for which every other blessing will be needed, viz., to complete our happiness. Is it not certain that the Being who gave the greatest, and whose love and capacity are as great as ever, will give all the smaller blessings that are necessary?
3. Has not in the slightest degree lessened either the love or the capacity of the Giver. The gift is infinite, but the heart of the Giver is as benevolent as ever, and His means as ample. He is able to do exceeding abundantly, etc.
4. Was bestowed when Christians were not in a position to appreciate the favour. Universal man was at enmity with God when He gave Christ. But Christians can, to some extent, value all other forces required.
5. Was bestowed without asking--Christians are praying for what else is necessary: And God has pledged answers to prayer. Ask, and ye shall receive. Take heart, then, Christian. Dont be anxious. He that spared not His own Son, etc, (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv32–39 32. He that spared not his own Son. If…
32. He that spared not his own Son. If he gave his Son to die for us, it is impossible that he should refuse us anything that will help or bless us. He has nothing he values more than his Son.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv32–33 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_8:32
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_8:32
Love resolving, performing, and revealing.—The argument employed by St. Paul in this verse is one from the greater to the less. It is a self-evident principle that the greater implies and includes the less. The greater gift is that of the well-beloved Son; the less is the “all things” which are included. If all things are given into the Saviour’s hands, then it must be true that believers are in possession of those things which are placed in the Saviour’s hands for their spiritual well-being. Christians have many fears and doubts by the way, but they are groundless, for Jesus Christ is surely the pledge of a Father’s love and watchful care. Jesus Christ is the gift which proclaims that every other needful blessing will be bestowed. Yes, Jesus is the name fraught with joy and comfort to every child of God. Let us, then, no longer doubt that infinite Goodness which gave the unspeakable gift. Let us no more dream that there can be poverty in the divine bestowals, for God “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”
Read full note →
I. Love resolving.—When did divine Love resolve not to spare the Well-beloved? Before the mighty rocks, which count their formative processes not by years but by centuries, began their solidifying methods—before time commenced its solemn march—in the vast æon of the eternal past did divine Love consider man’s ruined condition, and resolve not to spare the greatest gift which either time could know or eternity could produce. Here it may not be improper to contemplate divine Love pausing between love for the Son and pity for the fallen sons of men. What a momentous pause! What a solemn hiatus! What an important crisis! When the owner of the vineyard sent servant after servant to the husbandmen, and they slighted the opportunities of regaining a forfeited position, and boat the servants, and sent them away empty, it would have been natural for the lord of the vineyard to have said to himself, What shall I do? Shall I at once destroy those wicked husbandmen, or shall I venture among them my son and heir? God saw the people in ruin and in rebellion—saw with forevision. The interests of His moral government required the sacrifice of the well-beloved Son if a way of escape were to be devised for the rebellious. God loves the race, and yet He loves the Son. Between these conflicting loves, which shall prove victorious? Will God spare the Son, and not spare the race? Will God spare the race, and not spare the Son? What a solemn pause in the considerations of infinite Love! What will divine Love resolve? The pause, if there were a pause, was not of long continuance. What marvellous love to mankind is here revealed!—a love stretching, not only over the long centuries of time, but through the æons of eternity—a love anticipating the vast need before it had arisen! Infinite Love resolves to give up the dearest object of love to promote the welfare of guilty creatures. God has many sons both on earth and in heaven. Some are God’s sons by creation, and some in a higher sense by obedience to the divine commands, by submission to the righteous will of the Eternal, by the possession and manifestation of God-like qualities. The patriarchs are God’s eldest sons in time, who with giant-like mien walked the green carpet of the newly made earth—holy men of old who “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Patriarchs, seers, prophets, kings, priests, apostles, reformers, and martyrs are God’s noble sons; but none of the noblest born and most highly gifted of earth would be adequate to the requirements of eternal righteousness. Angels and archangels are the sons of God. We cannot tell the period of their birth. They came forth in a manner inexplicable to our finite understandings. But they reflect the glory of the Eternal, partake in the highest degree of the divine nature, are clothed in light, are all good and pure. Here surely may be found a messenger who could become incarnate and conduct the race out of sin’s darkness into the dazzling light of eternal righteousness. No. All are willing, but not one is fully qualified. God resolves to give neither the noblest of earth’s great sons nor the brightest seraph who dwells with unshrinking spirit and calm delight near the eternal light, but His own well-beloved Son.
II. Love performing.—Divine resolution is coincident with divine performance. There may be an interval, but no hesitation. There is neither time nor space to the Infinite, so that the word “coincident” has a wider and different meaning in the divine vocabulary from what it has in the human. There is cause and effect in human affairs; but can the same be predicated of divine affairs? What are the words “antecedent” and “consequent” to Him unto whom all things, past, present, and future, are present as in one group! Oh, how inadequate is human language when we discuss divine movements! We must content ourselves with the remark that with God to resolve is with Him to perform. God delivered up His Son to become incarnate. Divinity enshrined itself in the temple of our humanity. How great an act of love to the human race was that when God gave up His Son to become a man amongst men!—not merely a man amongst the richest, wisest, and noblest of mankind, though He was noblest of all—not a man to be fondled on the lap of luxury, to be crowned with the laurels of fame, to wield the sceptre of power, to revel in the light region of fancy where glowing visions entrance the soul, to glide sweetly down the pearly waters amid enchanting landscapes and gentle gales that waft to the senses richest music—but a man despised and rejected, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” God delivered up His Son so completely that He seemed to leave Him in solitude and sickness of heart, in weariness, thirstings, and hungerings. God is the father of the clouds, and yet He permitted Him to thirst who came to remove the moral thirst of mankind; God clothes the valleys with corn and feeds the young ravens when they cry, and yet He left Him to hunger who came to be bread from heaven for starving men. How complete the deliverance we gather from that mournful scene on Calvary when Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” How mysterious a revelation of divine love to the race have we in the crucifixion of the Son of God! This is indeed a profound mystery that God should seem to love His people so well as to forsake His only begotten Son. There is in the mediatorial scheme a combination of loves. We see both the love of God and the love of Jesus working and uniting in the great scheme of redemption. God “spared not His Son,” and how the words impress themselves on the mind! God “delivered Him up for us all,” and what a deliverance we had in that solemn hour—the world’s one hour amid the almost countless hours of time—when the heavens gathered blackness and the stable earth reeled in sympathy with the divine Sufferer! These words do not set before us the act of an unfeeling father, but the deed of One whose name and whose nature is love. God “spared not.” What do the words import? The word “spare” in this connection acquires new and untold significance. God did not refuse to deliver up His Son. What an appalling deliverance! Is a God capable of sacrifice in our sense of the word? If so, what a sacrifice when He delivered up His Son! Is a God capable of grief? If so, a burst of grief must have disturbed the divine repose when the Saviour’s cry on the cross pierced the heavens and reached the heart of infinite Love. If ever the music of heaven were hushed, if ever a cloud were brought over and darkened the joy of the celestials, if ever there were an oppressive silence around the throne of the Infinite, it was when Jesus trod alone the winepress of His last earthly suffering.
III. Love revealing.—It may seem strange that God, who is sovereign Lord of all, should have a feeling to spare and yet should overcome the emotion. If in this mysterious work of human redemption it may be declared that even Christ pleased not Himself, so we say with becoming reverence that God pleased not Himself in delivering up His Son, except in so far as He desired to show His great love unto rebellious men, and thus win them back from sin and uphold the interests of His moral government. Here in the passage we have the unlimited nature of divine love revealed. The gift of Jesus Christ Himself is a clear demonstration of the vastness of divine love; but we may understand it more perfectly and feel it more vividly by expanding the apostle’s thought that God’s great gift of Jesus implies the gift of all things. How boundless are those words! Imagine, if we can, a limit to all things, and then may we hope to comprehend the overpowering vastness of divine love. Grasp, if we can, the mighty range expressed in the simple words “all things”; let us travel, if we can, where all things terminate—let us soar on eagles’ wings and scale the heights, fathom the depths, and get below their influence; and then may we trust to be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height of that love which passeth knowledge. Science has not yet found out all the things which are even in the visible creation, and which are waiting the time of their discovery; and of those things which have been already revealed it is scarcely too much to say that one human mind cannot tell them all by name; and as yet they are not all arranged in satisfactory scientific order. All the things of science, philosophy, politics, religion, nature, revelation, the past, the present, and the future—all the things in this world of ours, and all the things, if need be, of those myriad worlds which are but guessed at by the imagination of man—are for our spiritual welfare. There can be no greater charter than this. It surpasses every other charter of blessings. We can stand nowhere out of the reach of God’s blessed “all things.” The atmosphere appears to be an all-pervading force, and almost everywhere are we surrounded by its beneficial agency; but God’s “all things” go even further, and are more enduring. Friends may depart, relatives may become indifferent, even my father and my mother may forsake, riches may take to themselves wings and fly away, a good name may be blighted, earthly prospects may be withered and dead, health may decline, sickness may shatter and death destroy, but God’s “all things” abide to the Christian amid every change and in the midst of every disaster. We may fancy that sickness and trouble take us out of the sphere of God’s “all things,” but they are a more blessed part than we now believe of God’s “all things.” We may suppose that, when struggling alone in the valley of temptation, we are far from God’s “all things,” but let us be assured that even the feeling of desolateness which has overwhelmed and chilled may be God’s way of blessing. We may imagine, when on the bed of death and the devil tries and we experience divine hidings, that God has forsaken us; but God is there in the darkness though we see Him not. God giveth all things with the gift of His Son. What shall we more say? “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” What more could we have? Who would not be a Christian, if he be a man of such large possessions as those indicated by St. Paul? “All things are yours.” We are rich beyond the power of human estimation. There are no title-deeds in this world which map out such extensive possessions.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_8:32
“How shall He not,” etc.—Looking back at the cross, Paul triumphantly asks, If God has already bestowed the one gift, compared with which all other gifts are nothing, how can we conceive Him to withhold any other gift? The words “all things” are limited only by God’s wisdom and love. Whatever God withholds He withholds for our good. And the reasons which now prompt Him to withhold some pleasant things will soon pass away. The time is coming when these words will be fulfilled in their widest sense. “Also with Him.” The gift of all things is pledged by the gift of His Son; and therefore the other gifts are inseparably linked with the one gift. “Give by His grace”: as in Rom_1:11, Rom_5:15. “All things”. recalls the same words in Rom_8:28. When we sec God giving up to shame and death His Son, that we may surround that Son in everlasting glory, we are sure that God will keep back from us no good thing, and that the ills of life, which result from the withholding of things commonly supposed to be good, are really blessings in disguise.—Beet.
The best being given, the least will not be denied.—It was a greater act to be in Christ reconciling the world than to be in Christ giving out the mercies He hath purchased. If He hath overcome the greatest bank that stopped the tide of mercy, shall little ones hinder the current of it? Justice and the honour of the law were the great mountains which stood in the way. Since those are removed by a miraculous wisdom and grace, what pebbles can stop the flood to believing souls? If God be the author of the greatest blessings, will He not be of the least? If He hath not spared His best treasure, shall the less be denied? It is the apostle’s arguing, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” He cannot but be as free in the least as He was in the greatest; there were more arguments to dissuade Him from that than there can be to stop His hands in other things. If anything you desire be refused by God, know it is your Saviour’s mind you shall not have it; for God would deny Him nothing of His purchase. Oh, how little do we live in the sense of those truths! how doth our impatience give God the lie, and tell Him He is a deadly enemy, notwithstanding His reconciling grace!—Charnock.
God given His best.—“What shall we then say to these things?” Having spoken of the love of God, such a sea of love came upon Him as overcame Him. And what follows? “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Do but consider the words a little. “He spared not His Son”; the word implies that God was sensible enough what it was to give such a Son, it implies the greatest tenderness; He felt every blow, yet He gave the blows Himself. Even as when of loving parents it is said they do not spare their children, when out of the greatest tenderness they do correct them. And He is said not to “spare His own Son,” who is more His own Son than our sons can be, which are differing from ourselves, but Christ of the same substance with Himself. And the truth is, none knows how to value the gift but God Himself that gave Him, and Christ Himself that was given. And He did do it freely too: the word that is used, χαρίσεται, imports it; with Him He shall graciously give us; He gives Christ, and all things else freely with Him; therefore it implies that He gave Him up freely also. Abraham gave his son, but he was commanded to do it; but God gave His Son freely, and it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. And to show that this was the greatest gift that God could give, or had to give, what follows? Now He had given us His Son, Take all things else, saith He. I do not value heaven now I have given My Son for you; therefore take that. I do not value grace, nor comfort, nor creatures: take all freely, even as you had My Son. “If He spared not His Son,” saith He, “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” He hath given the greatest pawn of His love, in giving us His Son, that ever was.—Goodwin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv33, 35, 36, 37, 38 33. “Who shall charge anything against the elect of…
33. “Who shall charge anything against the elect of God?” Eklektos, “the elect,” is from ek, “out,” and lego, “to choose.” In regeneration God chooses us out of the world. The word “elect” really conveys the idea of a second choosing, as lego means “to choose,” and ek, “from.” Hence the chosen from the chosen, corroborating the fact that Christ does not select a bride from the devil’s people, which would be true if the election was consummated in regeneration; but He chooses His bride from the people of God, superinducing this second election in entire sanctification, determinative of the bridehood.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv32, 37, 38
Romans
THE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS
Read full note →
Rom 8:32.
We have here an allusion to, if not a distinct quotation from, the narrative in Genesis, of Abraham’s offering up of Isaac. The same word which is employed in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, to translate the Hebrew word rendered in our Bible as ‘withheld,’ is employed here by the Apostle. And there is evidently floating before his mind the thought that, in some profound and real sense, there is an analogy between that wondrous and faithful act of giving up and the transcendent and stupendous gift to the world, from God, of His Son.
If we take that point of view, the language of my text rises into singular force, and suggests many very deep thoughts, about which, perhaps, silence is best. But led by that analogy, let us deal with these words.
I. Consider this mysterious act of divine surrender.
The analogy seems to suggest to us, strange as it may be, and remote from the cold and abstract ideas of the divine nature which it is thought to be philosophical to cherish, that something corresponding to the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch’s heart flitted across the divine mind when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is the highest crown and glory of love, as we know it. And who shall venture to say that we so fully apprehend the divine nature as to be warranted in declaring that some analogy to that is impossible for Him? Our language is, ‘I will not offer unto God that which doth cost me nothing.’ Let us bow in silence before the dim intimation that seems to flicker out of the words of my text, that so He says to us, ‘I will not offer unto you that which doth cost Me nothing.’ ‘He spared not His own Son’; withheld Him not from us.
But passing from that which, I dare say, many of you may suppose to be fanciful and unwarranted, let us come upon the surer ground of the other words of my text. And notice how the reality of the surrender is emphasised by the closeness of the bond which, in the mysterious eternity, knits together the Father and the Son. As with Abraham, so in this lofty example, of which Abraham and Isaac were but as dim, wavering reflections in water, the Son is His own Son. It seems to me impossible, upon any fair interpretation of the words before us, to refrain from giving to that epithet here its very highest and most mysterious sense. It cannot be any mere equivalent for Messiah, it cannot merely mean a man who was like God in purity of nature and in closeness of communion. For the force of the analogy and the emphasis of that word which is even more emphatic in the Greek than in the English ‘His own Son,’ point to a community of nature, to a uniqueness and singleness of relation, to a closeness of intimacy, to which no other is a parallel. And so we have to estimate the measure of the surrender by the tenderness and awfulness of the bond. ‘Having one Son, His well-beloved, He sent Him.’
Notice, again, how the greatness of the surrender is made more emphatic by the contemplation of it in its double negative and positive aspect, in the two successive clauses. ‘He spared not His Son, but delivered Him up,’ an absolute, positive giving of Him over to the humiliation of the life and to the mystery of the death.
And notice how the tenderness and the beneficence that were the sole motive of the surrender are lifted into light in the last words, ‘for us all.’ The single, sole reason that bowed, if I may so say, the divine purpose, and determined the mysterious act, was a pure desire for our blessing. No definition is given as to the manner in which that surrender wrought for our good. The Apostle does not need to dwell upon that. His purpose is to emphasise the entire unselfishness, the utter simplicity of the motive which moved the divine will. One great throb of love to the whole of humanity led to that transcendent surrender, before which we can only bow and say, ‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.’
And now, notice how this mysterious act is grasped by the Apostle here as what I may call the illuminating fact as to the whole divine nature. From it, and from it alone, there falls a blaze of light on the deepest things in God. We are accustomed to speak of Christ’s perfect life of unselfishness, and His death of pure beneficence, as being the great manifestation to us all that in His heart there is an infinite fountain of love to us. We are, further, accustomed to speak of Christ’s mission and death as being the revelation to us of the love of God as well as of the Man Christ Jesus, because we believe that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world,’ and that He has so manifested and revealed the very nature of divinity to us, in His life and in His person, that, as He Himself says, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ And every conclusion that we draw as to the love of Christ is, ipso facto, a conclusion as to the love of God. But my text looks at the matter from rather a different point of view, and bids us see, in Christ’s mission and sacrifice, the great demonstration of the love of God, not only because ‘God was in Christ,’ but because the Father’s will, conceived of as distinct from, and yet harmonious with, the will of the Son, gives Him up for us. And we have to say, not only that we see the love of God in the love of Christ, but ‘God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son’ that we might have life through Him.
These various phases of the love of Christ as manifesting the divine love, may not be capable of perfect harmonising in our thoughts, but they do blend into one, and by reason of them all, ‘God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ We have to think not only of Abraham who gave up, but of the unresisting, innocent Isaac, bearing on his shoulders the wood for the burnt offering, as the Christ bore the Cross on His, and suffering himself to be bound upon the pile, not only by the cords that tied his limbs, but by the cords of obedience and submission, and in both we have to bow before the Apocalypse of divine love.
II. So, secondly, look at the power of this divine surrender to bring with it all other gifts.
‘How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ The Apostle’s triumphant question requires for its affirmative answer only the belief in the unchangeableness of the Divine heart, and the uniformity of the Divine purpose. And if these be recognised, their conclusion inevitably follows. ‘With Him He will freely give us all things.’
It is so, because the greater gift implies the less. We do not expect that a man who hands over a million of pounds to another, to help him, will stick at a farthing afterwards. If you give a diamond you may well give a box to keep it in. In God’s gift the lesser will follow the lead of the greater; and whatsoever a man can want, it is a smaller thing for Him to bestow, than was the gift of His Son.
There is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving the two sets of gifts implied in words of the original, perhaps scarcely capable of being reproduced in any translation. The expression that is rendered ‘freely give,’ implies that there is a grace and a pleasantness in the act of bestowal. God gave in Christ, what we may reverently say it was something like pain to give. Will He not give the lesser, whatever they may be, which it is the joy of His heart to communicate? The greater implies the less.
Farther, this one great gift draws all other gifts after it, because the purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without the bestowment of the lesser. He does not begin to build being unable to finish; He does not miscalculate His resources, nor stultify Himself by commencing upon a large scale, and having to stop short before the purpose with which He began is accomplished. Men build great palaces, and are bankrupt before the roof is put on. God lays His plans with the knowledge of His powers, and having first of all bestowed this large gift, is not going to have it bestowed in vain for want of some smaller ones to follow it up. Christ puts the same argument to us, beginning only at the other end of the process. Paul says, ‘God has laid the foundation in Christ.’ Do you think He will stop before the headstone is put on? Christ said, ‘It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.’ Do you think He will not give you bread and water on the road to it? Will He send out His soldiers half-equipped; will it be found when they are on their march that they have been started with a defective commissariat, and with insufficient trenching tools? Shall the children of the King, on the road to their thrones, be left to scramble along anyhow, in want of what they need to get there? That is not God’s way of doing. He that hath begun a good work will also perfect the same, and when He gave to you and me His Son, He bound Himself to give us every subsidiary and secondary blessing which was needed to make that Son’s work complete in each of us.
Again, this great blessing draws after it, by necessary consequence, all other lesser and secondary gifts, inasmuch as, in every real sense, everything is included and possessed in the Christ when we receive Him. ‘With Him,’ says Paul, as if that gift once laid in a man’s heart actually enclosed within it, and had for its indispensable accompaniment the possession of every smaller thing that a man can need, Jesus Christ is, as it were, a great Cornucopia, a horn of abundance, out of which will pour, with magic affluence, all manner of supplies according as we require. This fountain flows with milk, wine, and water, as men need. Everything is given us when Christ is given to us, because Christ is the Heir of all things, and we possess all things in Him; as some poor village maiden married to a prince in disguise, who, on the morrow of her wedding finds that she is lady of broad lands, and mistress of a kingdom. ‘He that spared not His own Son,’ not only ‘with Him will give,’ but in Him has ‘given us all things.’
And so, brethren, just as that great gift is the illuminating fact in reference to the divine heart, so is it the interpreting fact in reference to the divine dealings. Only when we keep firm hold of Christ as the gift of God, and the Explainer of all that God does, can we face the darkness, the perplexities, the torturing questions that from the beginning have harassed men’s minds as they looked upon the mysteries of human misery. If we recognise that God has given us His Son, then all things become, if not plain, at least lighted with some gleam from that great gift; and we feel that the surrender of Christ is the constraining fact which shapes after its own likeness, and for its own purpose, all the rest of God’s dealings with men. That gift makes anything believable, reasonable, possible, rather than that He should spare not His own Son, and then should counterwork His own act by sending the world anything but good.
III. And now, lastly, take one or two practical issues from these thoughts, in reference to our own belief and conduct.
First, I would say, Let us correct our estimates of the relative importance of the two sets of gifts. On the one side stands the solitary Christ; on the other side are massed all delights of sense, all blessings of time, all the things that the vulgar estimation of men unanimously recognises to be good. These are only makeweights. They are all lumped together into an ‘also.’ They are but the golden dust that may be filed off from the great ingot and solid block. They are but the outward tokens of His far deeper and true preciousness. They are secondary; He is the primary. What an inversion of our notions of good! Do you degrade all the world’s wealth, pleasantness, ease, prosperity, into an ‘also?’ Are you content to put it in the secondary place, as a result, if it please Him, of Christ? Do you live as if you did? Which do you hunger for most? Which do you labour for hardest? ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom and the King, and all ‘these things shall be added unto you.’
Let these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts of the Christ. The words of my text, at first sight, might seem to be simply a promise of abundant earthly good. But look what lies close beside them, and is even part of the same triumphant burst. ‘Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ These are some of the ‘all things’ which Paul expected that God would give him and his brethren. And looking upon all, he says, ‘They all work together for good’; and in them all we may be more than conquerors. It would be a poor, shabby issue of such a great gift as that of which we have been speaking, if it were only to be followed by the sweetnesses and prosperity and wealth of this world. But here is the point that we have to keep hold of-inasmuch as He gives us all things, let us take all the things that come to us as being as distinctly the gifts of His love, as is the gift of Christ Himself. A wise physician, to an ignorant onlooker, might seem to be acting in contradictory fashions when in the one moment he slashes into a limb, with a sharp, gleaming knife, and in the next sedulously binds the wounds, and closes the arteries, but the purpose of both acts is one.
The diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and the pathetic sunset. The same annual revolution whirls us through the balmy summer days and the biting winter ones. God’s purpose is one. His methods vary. The road goes straight to its goal; but it sometimes runs in tunnels dank and dark and stifling, and sometimes by sunny glades and through green pastures. God’s purpose is always love, brother. His withdrawals are gifts, and sorrow is not the least of the benefits which come to us through the Man of Sorrows.
So again, let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet and peaceful faith. We find it a great deal easier to trust God for Heaven than for earth-for the distant blessings than for the near ones. Many a man will venture his soul into God’s hands, who would hesitate to venture to-morrow’s food there. Why? Is it not because we do not really trust Him for the greater that we find it so hard to trust Him for the less? Is it not because we want the less more really than we want the greater, that we can put ourselves off with faith for the one, and want something more solid to grasp for the other? Live in the calm confidence that God gives all things; and gives us for to-morrow as for eternity; for earth as for heaven.
And, last of all, make you quite sure that you have taken the great gift of God. He gives it to all the world, but they only have it who accept it by faith. Have you, my brother? I look out upon the lives of the mass of professing Christians; and this question weighs on my heart, judging by conduct-have they really got Christ for their own? ‘Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?’ Look how you are all fighting and scrambling, and sweating and fretting, to get hold of the goods of this present life, and here is a gift gleaming before you all the while that you will not condescend to take. Like a man standing in a market-place offering sovereigns for nothing, which nobody accepts because they think the offer is too good to be true, so God complains and wails: I have stretched out My hands all the day, laden with gifts, and no man regarded.
‘It is only heaven may be had for the asking;
It is only God that is given away.’
He gives His Son. Take Him by humble faith in His sacrifice and Spirit; take Him, and with Him He freely gives you all things.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv32–39 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered…
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? [This verse is an answer, and more than an answer, to the question just asked. In it the negative and positive sides of God's actions are suggested, but not fully developed. The full thought may be thus expressed: To bring for his redeemed good out of all things may entail many sacrifices on the part of God--sacrifices which he might well regret to make on account of love for the thing sacrificed, and others which he might well withhold for lack of love towards the parties for whom the sacrifice is made. But what God has already done in accomplishing his eternal purpose is a guarantee that he will continue to do whatever more may be required. If he spared not his own Son, he will not halt at making any other sacrifice; neither value nor preciousness can cause him to withhold what we need. Again, our unworthiness and insignificance form no obstacle to the outpouring of his most marvelous gifts; for if God delivered up his own Son for us (while we were yet sinners), will he not now even more willingly and freely, to the gift of his Son, add all other gifts which lead to or consummate our glorification? In short, nothing but our own act of apostasy can cause us to fail of our inheritance.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv38–39 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angels
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv33, 35, 37 Who will bring any accusation against God's chosen ones?…
Who will bring any accusation against God's chosen ones? God is the one who justifies
Paul uses a question for emphasis. AT: "No one can accuse us before God because he is the one who makes us right with him" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Read full note →
Who is the one who condemns?
Paul uses a question for emphasis. He does not expect an answer. AT: "No one will condemn us!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
more than that, who was raised
Here to raise up is an idiom for causing someone who has died to become alive again. You can translate this in an active form. AT: "whom even more importantly God raised from the dead" or "who even more importantly came back to life" (See: Active or Passive and Idiom)
who is at the right hand of God
To be at the "right hand of God" is a symbolic action of receiving great honor and authority from God. AT: "who is at the place of honor beside God" (See: Symbolic Action)
translationWords
accuse
chosen one
just
condemn
Jesus
raise
intercede
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v32 8:32 did not spare even his own Son: Behind…
8:32 did not spare even his own Son: Behind this language is the story about Abraham’s willingness to offer his son Isaac (Gen 22:12, 16). Isaac, however, was not actually sacrificed. God’s not sparing his only Son went the full course: He handed him over to the shameful and painful death of crucifixion.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.